Wage Theft In Restaurant and Construction Industries

A report by the Oregon Center for Public Policy (OCPP) shows the issue of wage theft disproportionately affects workers in the restaurant and construction industries.

Wage theft includes an employer paying less than minimum wage, not paying overtime, not paying for certain hours worked, or simply not paying an employee at all. Food service and construction jobs account for eight and four percent of Oregon jobs, respectively, but they made up 30 and 16 percent of all wage theft claims filed with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI).

In total, 871 wage theft claims were made with BOLI between July 2012 and June 2013, but there’s evidence to suggest many more incidents go unreported.

Have you experienced wage theft? How did you address the problem, if at all?